Conventionally, a variety of tape printing apparatuses having the cutting device for cutting the long size roll sheet throughout its entire width have been proposed. For example, there is available a tape printing apparatus having a slide type cutting device for cutting the roll sheet in the width direction by sliding its movable blade in the width direction of the roll sheet (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-86823).
The slide type described in the above-mentioned Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-86823 includes a cutter carrying mechanism for reciprocating a cutter unit having the movable blade in a cutting direction, so that the movable blade set at the home position is slid and the reciprocating motion of passing a printing medium in the width direction completely is achieved when cutting a printing medium. This cutter carrying mechanism has a problem that it is difficult to form into a thin configuration because it needs to be provided with a guide shaft for guiding the cutter unit and a lead screw which is engaged with the cutter unit to move the cutter. Further, the slide system has a problem that the durability of the movable blade is dropped because cutting points of the movable blade for cutting the roll sheet are concentrated locally.
Thus, a cutting mechanism (so-called guillotine cutter) which cuts the roll sheet with a fixed blade making contact with one side face of the roll sheet throughout the entire width in the width direction and a movable blade which after making contact with the entire width in the width direction on the other side face of the roll sheet, slides on this fixed blade moving in the thickness direction of the roll sheet can be considered. However, in the cutting mechanism comprised of the fixed blade and movable blade, no gap relative to a frame member is secured to protect the movable blade in a condition in which the movable blade is stored. For the reason, if a non-printing object surface of the roll sheet is provided with an adhesive agent layer, there is such a problem that an adhesive agent adheres to the movable blade and when the movable blade slides on the frame member to cut out the roll sheet, sliding resistance is caused thereby dropping durability performance of the cutting mechanism.